Wajima occupies the northwestern coast of Noto Peninsula and is bordered by the Sea of Japan on the north and west. Parts of the city are within the borders of the Noto Hantō Quasi-National Park, the island of Hegurajima, located 47 kilometers from the north coast of Noto Peninsula is administratively part of the city of Wajima.

Wajima has a humid continental climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall, the average annual temperature in Wajima is 13.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2300 mm with September as the wettest month.The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.9 °C.[3]

Following the Meiji restoration, the area was organised into Hōsu and Fugeshi districts. The town of Wajima was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, it was raised to city status on March 31, 1954 after merging with the neighbouring villages of Oya, Kawarada, Konosu, Nishiho, Mii, and Najimi. On February 1, 2006, the town of Monzen was merged into Wajima.

Wajima has ten public elementary schools and three middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high school operated by the Ishikawa Prefectural Board of Education. There is also one private high school.

The town is known in Japan for its lacquerware, called Wajima-nuri (輪島塗). There are artifacts showing lacquer was used to decorate and strengthen a shrine door from the 14th century. Wajima-nuri uses a technique that is unique to the area, mixing a finely powdered mineral, jinoko[4], with the lacquer in the early stages of production for extra durability. The rougher, earlier layers are then coated with more layers of finer lacquer, which is polished to a lustrous shine, and often decorated with designs made of gold and other precious materials, the lacquer tree was once abundant in the area but is now scarce and most of the lacquer used is imported from China.

The Wajima Morning Market (輪島朝市) is open every day except the 2nd Wednesday and 4th Wednesday of each month (and January 1–3 every year). Opening hours are from 8:00 to noon. Visitors can stroll through the many stalls of fresh seafood, lacquerware, and other handicrafts.

Senmaida (1000 Rice Fields) is one of the most scenic places in Ishikawa. There are actually 1004 fields which are either owned and tended to by families, or rented out and looked after by the locals, each year in the last week of September two couples are drawn from a nationwide lottery to have their wedding ceremony at Senmaida. The event is open to the public.

As a memorial to the Noto earthquake, a tradition of lighting the fields began. Initially this was done with millions of candles placed around each field following the harvest. Due to the popularity of the spectacle, solar LED lanterns are now used allowing the fields to be lit nightly, the lanterns are installed at the end of September and are left up through March when work on the fields begins again. The fields remain lit for about four hours after sunset.[5]

Every year from August 22 to 25 Wajima comes alive with a famous four-day festival.Visitors can watch huge (10 meter tall) kiriko lanterns and smaller paper lanterns being carried through the streets along with portable shrines called omikoshi. Visitors can eat festival foods, listen to taiko drums being played, and watch the main event, at the festival climax, seaside stacks of bamboo poles are torched as bonfires (some four or five stories high). Gohei (decorative strips of white paper used in Shinto rituals) is tied to the bamboo. As the fire consumes the poles, competing groups of men struggle to pull down the blazing piles, claiming as their prize pieces of burnt bamboo along with the gohei attached as symbols of good fortune. Victors then climb to the top of their respective kiriko to hang their prize, purportedly to add to the good fortune of their village in the coming year.

The giant kiriko lanterns are indispensable to festivals celebrated in Noto. Wajima's festival kiriko are especially distinctive because of their Wajima lacquer coatings, the lanterns bear the inscription of a three-character kanji poem and, on the reverse side, the village crest from where the kiriko originate.

The Story of the Taisai (Great Festival) depicts the love story between two Kami (gods): the Kami of the forest (a half blind male deity) and the Kami of the seven islands (the female deity) that are just off the coast of Wajima. Once a year the people of Noto guide the male Kami from his forest home through the city, while stopping at every business, home, and shrine to give blessings to the people of Wajima, and eventually to meet his wife at the sea. To guide him they carry bright lights (the kiriko) and beat taiko (drums) that are in the kiriko, the taiko of Noto are generally played by two or more people, with the base beat played by the kobi and the main rhythm played by the obai on a shared taiko. Shinabue and atarigane accompany.

The main event takes place on the third night of the festival at midnight at Wajima Marine Park.[7]

Playing gojinjo-daiko is strictly restricted to residents in Nafune, a small village within Wajima, where only 250 people live, it is very rare to see a live drum performance.[10]

The origin of the gojinjo-daiko dates back to 1577 when the famous general, Uesugi Kenshin invaded Noto, because local people had no weapons, they resisted by beating war drums and wore ferocious looking devil masks with seaweed on their heads to scare off their enemies. The low sound of drums sound associated with the rumbling of the earth frightened off the invaders.[11][12][13]

Kanakura is in the northern part of the Noto Peninsula, it is a small, peaceful village with ancient temples and rice terraces. It celebrates an annual light festival (matsuri) in which the residents place one candle in each of 20,000 glass sake cups and arrange them in geometric configurations after dark while listening to traditional Japanese music, the event is held on August 16.[15]

1.
Cities of Japan
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A city is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the level as towns and villages. Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law of 1947, a city can theoretically be demoted to a town or village when it fails to meet any of these conditions, but such a demotion has not happened to date. The least populous city, Utashinai, Hokkaido, has a population of six thousand, while a town in the prefecture, Otofuke. Many municipalities gained city status under this eased standard, the Cabinet of Japan can designate cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants to have the status of special city, core city, or designated city. These statuses expand the scope of authority delegated from the prefectural government to the city government. Tokyo, Japan’s capital, existed as a city until 1943, the 23 special wards of Tokyo, which constitute the core of the Tokyo metropolitan area, each have an administrative status analogous to that of cities. Tokyo also has several other incorporated cities, towns and villages within its jurisdiction. J, jacobs at Urban Studies Research, Vol.2011, doi,10. 1155/2011/692764 Large City System of Japan, graphic shows Japanese city types at p.1

2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

3.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon

4.
Hokuriku region
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The Hokuriku region was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lied along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region and it is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern Japan. Due to its shape, and the Noto Peninsula jutting out. Since the Heian Era until the Edo Period the region was a recipient of population. With the growth of urban centers in the 20th century, particularly Tokyo and Chukyo, the region is also known for traditional culture that originated from elsewhere that has been long lost along the Taiheiyō Belt. The main industries in the Hokuriku area include chemicals, medicine, tourism, textiles and textile machinery, heavy machinery, farming, koshihikari, a popular variety of rice is a special product of Hokuriku region. The Hokuriku region has the highest volume of snowfall of any inhabited and this is because dry Siberian air masses, which develop high humidity over the Sea of Japan, are forced upwards when they encounter the mountains of Honshū, causing the humidity to condense as snow. The long winters and deep snow of this region are depicted in Hokuetsu Seppu, the Hokuriku region is also the setting for Yasunari Kawabatas novel Snow Country. Hokuriku is listed as #4 in Lonely Planets Best in Travel 2014 - Top 10 Regions

5.
Prefectures of Japan
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The Prefectures of Japan consist of 47 prefectures. They form the first level of jurisdiction and administrative division of Japan and they consist of 43 prefectures proper, two urban prefectures, one circuit or territory and one metropolis. The Meiji Fuhanken sanchisei administration created the first prefectures to replace the provinces of Japan in 1868, each prefectures chief executive is a directly-elected governor. Ordinances and budgets are enacted by an assembly whose members are elected for four-year terms. Under the current Local Autonomy Law, each prefecture is subdivided into cities and districts and each district into towns, for example, Hokkaido has 14 subprefectures that act as branch offices of the prefecture. Some other prefectures also have offices that carry out prefectural administrative functions outside the capital. Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is a merged city-prefecture, the Wests use of prefecture to label these Japanese regions stems from 16th-century Portuguese explorers and traders use of prefeitura to describe the fiefdoms they encountered there. Its original sense in Portuguese, however, was closer to municipality than province and those fiefs were headed by a local warlord or family. Though the fiefs have long since been dismantled, merged, and reorganized multiple times, and been granted legislative governance and oversight, the Meiji government established the current system in July 1871 with the abolition of the Han system and establishment of the prefecture system. Although there were initially over 300 prefectures, many of them being former Han territories, this number was reduced to 72 in the part of 1871. The Local Autonomy Law of 1947 gave more power to prefectures. In 2003, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed that the government consolidate the current prefectures into about 10 regional states, the plan called for each region to have greater autonomy than existing prefectures. This process would reduce the number of administrative regions and cut administrative costs. As of August 2012, no reorganization has been scheduled, the central government delegates many functions to the prefectures and municipalities, but retains the overall right to control them. Although local government expenditure accounts for 70 percent of government expenditure, the central government controls local budgets, tax rates. Historically, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō-ruled zones around the nine largest cities in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones elsewhere. When the Meiji government began to create the system in 1868, the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu, while the township-ruled zones. Later, in 1871, the government designated Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto as fu, during World War II, in 1943, Tokyo became a to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture

6.
Ishikawa Prefecture
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Ishikawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshū island. Ishikawa was formed in 1872 from the merger of Kaga Province, Ishikawa is on the Sea of Japan coast. The prefecture also has some islands, including Notojima, Mitsukejima, Hegurajima, Ishikawa Prefecture has an area of 4,185 km² and as of April 1,2011 it has a population of 1,166,643 persons. The tea ceremony was introduced in 1666 when Maeda Toshitsune invited Senbiki Soshitsu of Urasenke to Kanazawa, kutani ware is a bright colored glaze like Chinese porcelain. Ohi teaware is a pottery with a unique to Kanazawa. Nyotaimori or naked sushi is said to have originated in Ishikawa Prefecture, Kaga silk is made with complicated silk print technique with an intentional rough look. Kanazawa lacquerware is high quality lacquerware traditionally decorated with gold dust, Kanazawa gold leaf is produced with a technique of beating gold into wafer-thin sheets. Kaga mizuhiki is ribbon-like decoration made from glued Japanese paper, Kaga inlay crafts are made with a combination of thin flat and thread metal inlays. Gojinjo Daiko is a Japanese drum, a Wajima city cultural heritage as well as an Ishikawa Prefecture intangible cultural heritage, abare Festival is reputed the most fierce festivals of Noto, Ishikawa. The most popular destination in Ishikawa is Kanazawa, tourists can get to Ishikawa by plane via either the Komatsu or Noto airports. Hideki Matsui, a current player for the New York Yankees, was born and raised in Neagari Town and he gained fame as a baseball player while attending high school in Kanazawa. Daisuke Nakata, a trampolinist who has competed in the Olympics in the past, is from Ishikawa, Ishikawa hosts a number of well-known universities. Hokuriku University—a small liberal arts university with a School of Pharmacy and a School of Future Learning that gives instruction in Business, Economics, tanimoto is currently one of two governors who are in their sixth term nationwide, the other being Masaru Hashimoto of Ibaraki. As of February 26,2014, the LDP prefectural assembly caucus has 25 members, in the National Diet, Ishikawa is represented by three directly elected members of the House of Representatives and two of the House of Councillors. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC58053128 Ishikawa travel guide from Wikivoyage Official website Cultural assets of Ishikawa

7.
Japan Standard Time
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Japan Standard Time or JST is the standard timezone in Japan, and is 9 hours ahead of UTC, i. e. it is UTC+09,00. There is no daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated several times, during World War II, it was often called Tokyo Standard Time. Japan Standard Time is the same as Korean Standard Time, Indonesian Eastern Standard Time, before the Meiji era, each local region had its own timezone in which noon was when the sun was exactly at its zenith. As modern transportation methods, such as trains, were adopted, in 1886, Ordinance 51 was issued in response to this problem, which stated, Ordinance 51 - July 13,1886 The prime meridian passes through Englands Greenwich Observatory. Longitudes are calculated using the prime meridian, counting 180 degrees either east or west, positive degrees are east, negative degrees are west. On January 1,1888,135 degrees east longitude will be set as the meridian for all of Japan. According to this, the time was set 9 hours ahead of GMT. In the ordinance, the first clause mentions GMT, the second defines east longitude and west longitude, the city of Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture is located exactly on 135 degrees east longitude and subsequently became known as Toki no machi. While Korea came under Japanese rule in 1910, Korea Standard Time of UTC+8,30 continued to be used until 1912, when it was changed to Central Standard Time. Western Standard Time, which was used in Taiwan and some parts of Okinawa, was abolished by Ordinance 529 in 1937 and replaced by Central Standard Time in those areas. Territories occupied by Japan during World War II, including Singapore and Malaya, adopted Japan Standard Time for the duration of their occupation, more recently there have been efforts to bring back DST in Japan, but so far this has not happened. The two-time-zone system was implemented in Japan between January 1896 and September 1937, From October 1937, Central Standard Time was also used in western Okinawa, the IANA time zone database contains one zone for Japan in the file zone. tab, named Asia/Tokyo. From 1948–51, Japan observed DST between May and September every year under an initiative of the U. S. -led occupation army, since then, DST has never been officially implemented nationwide in Japan. Starting in the late 1990s, a movement to reinstate DST in Japan gained some popularity, aiming at saving energy, in the early 2000s, a few local governments and commerce departments promoted unmandated hour-earlier work schedule experiments during the summer without officially resetting clocks. The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy is expected to propose that the Japanese government begin studying DST in an attempt to combat global warming. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe made a significant effort to introduce daylight saving time, however, it is not clear that DST would conserve energy in Japan. JJY Japanese calendar UTC+09,00 Japanese clock

8.
Primula
–
Primula /ˈprɪmjʊlə/ is a genus of mainly herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. They include the familiar wildflower of banks and verges, the primrose, other common species are P. auricula, P. veris and P. elatior. These species and many others are valued for their ornamental flowers and they have been extensively cultivated and hybridised - in the case of the primrose, for many hundreds of years. Primula are native to the northern hemisphere, south into tropical mountains in Ethiopia, Indonesia and New Guinea. Almost half of the species are from the Himalayas. Primula has about 500 species in traditional treatments, and more if certain related genera are included within its circumscription, Primula is a complex and varied genus, with a range of habitats from alpine slopes to boggy meadows. Some species show a white mealy bloom on various parts of the plant, many species are adapted to alpine climates. The word primula is the Latin feminine diminutive of primus, meaning first, Primula species have been extensively cultivated and hybridised, mainly derived from P. elatior, P. juliae, P. veris and P. vulgaris. Polyanthus is one group of plants, which has produced a large variety of strains in all colours, usually grown as annuals. The classification of the genus Primula has been investigated by botanists for over a century, as the genus is both large and diverse, botanists have organized the species in various sub-generic groups. The most common is division into a series of thirty sections, some of these sections contain many species, others contain only one

9.
Population
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A population is the number of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding. In sociology, population refers to a collection of humans, Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers mainly to human population, in population genetics a sexual population is a set of organisms in which any pair of members can breed together. This means that they can regularly exchange gametes to produce normally-fertile offspring and this also implies that all members belong to the same species. If the gamodeme is very large, and all gene alleles are uniformly distributed by the gametes within it, however, there may be low frequencies of exchange with these neighbours. This may be viewed as the breaking up of a sexual population into smaller overlapping sexual populations. The overall rise in homozygosity is quantified by the inbreeding coefficient, note that all homozygotes are increased in frequency – both the deleterious and the desirable. The mean phenotype of the collection is lower than that of the panmictic original – which is known as inbreeding depression. It is most important to note, however, that some lines will be superior to the panmictic original, while some will be about the same. The probabilities of each can be estimated from those binomial equations, in plant and animal breeding, procedures have been developed which deliberately utilise the effects of dispersion. It can be shown that dispersion-assisted selection leads to the greatest genetic advance and this is so for both allogamous and autogamous gamodemes. In ecology, the population of a species in a certain area can be estimated using the Lincoln Index. As of todays date, the population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 7.496 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion number was surpassed on 12 March 2012, according to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached 5 billion in 1987, the population of countries such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates. Researcher Carl Haub calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have probably been born in the last 2000 years, Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055

10.
Population density
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density

11.
Noto Peninsula
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Noto Peninsula is a peninsula that projects north into the Sea of Japan from the coast of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. The main industries of the peninsula are agriculture, fisheries, Noto has no meaning in Japanese. It appears to come from a language antecedent to Ainu, in which not means peninsula, the name is written with two ateji, 能 nō ability and 登 tō/to ascend. The area of the Noto Peninsula is divided into 3 regions, kuchi-Noto South part of the area. Hakui City, Kahoku City, Hōdatsu-shimizu Town, Shika Town Naka-Noto Middle part of the area, Nanao City, Wakura Onsen Resort, Naka-Noto Town, Tatsuruhama Oku-Noto North part of the area. Wajima City, Suzu City, Noto Town, Anamizu Town, Noto Island Wakura Onsen Located in Nanao City, the JR Nanao Line also terminates here. Keta Great Shrine Located in Hakui City and well known as a shrine for finding a lover, Wajima Morning Market This market is held in the center of Wajima City. Shoppers can buy a variety of fish and vegetables cheaply. Soji Temple located in Monzen Town, is a temple of Sōtō Zen Buddhism. Here there are also older cathedrals, as well as a newer one located in Kanagawa Prefecture, mitsuke Jima Meaning found island it is located in Suzu City. The name comes from the legend in which Saint Kukai found his magic stick here, Unoke Located in Kahoku City, the first office computer in Japan was manufactured by Unoke Electronics, which was established in this town. Anamizu Known as one of the places where Percival Lowell made a stay during his visit to Japan, the Noto Peninsula features prominently in the Japanese film noir Zero Focus, directed by Yoshitaro Nomura. The film features breathtaking footage of the peninsulas coast, along with a dissection of the areas social distinctions. Noto Peninsula is also the setting of Hirokazu Koreedas second film Maborosi, Suzu, the city located at the tip of the Noto Peninsula is the setting for the 2014 film Saihate Nite. JR Nanao Line comes from Kanazawa to Wakura Onsen Station via Unoke, Hakui, Noto Railway Small local railway from Wakura to Anamizu. Noto Airport Located between Anamizu and Wajima, air line to Tokyo International Airport. Noto Satoyama Kaido Stretches from Kanazawa to Anamizu Town, no-etu Expressway Comes from Oyabe to Wajima via Nanao and Noto Airport. Suzu Road A free elongation of the Noto Tollway, from Anamizu to Suzu, route 249 National road that stretches around the Noto Peninsula

12.
Sea of Japan
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The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, and the Asian mainland. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean and it is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific Ocean and this isolation also reflects in the fauna species and in the water salinity, which is lower than in the ocean. The sea has no islands, bays or capes. Its water balance is determined by the inflow and outflow through the straits connecting it to the neighboring seas. Few rivers discharge into the sea and their contribution to the water exchange is within 1%. The seawater has a concentration of dissolved oxygen that results in high biological productivity. Therefore, fishing is the dominant economic activity in the region, the intensity of shipments across the sea has been moderate owing to political issues, but it is steadily increasing as a result of the growth of East Asian economies. The sea is called Rìběn hǎi or originally Jīng hǎi in China, Yaponskoye more in Russia, Chosŏn Tonghae in North Korea, a naming dispute exists about the sea name, with South and North Korea promoting the English translation of its native name East Sea. In Europe, the sea is called Mer du Japon in French, Japanisches Meer in German, Mar del Giappone in Italian, in Southeast Asia, the sea is called Laut Jepun in Malay, Laut Jepang in Indonesian, and Dagat Hapon in Filipino. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Japan Sea as follows, the Northeastern limit of the Eastern China Sea and the Western limit of the Inland Sea. A line running from Nagoya Saki in Kyûsyû through the islands of Uma Sima, from the extremity of Siriya Saki to the extremity of Esan Saki. A line joining Sôni Misaki and Nishi Notoro Misaki, from Cape Tuik to Cape Sushcheva. The Sea of Japan was once a landlocked sea when the bridge of East Asia existed. The onset of formation of the Japan Arc was in Early Miocene, the Early Miocene period also corresponds to incipient opening of the Japan Sea, and the northern and southern parts of the Japanese archipelago that were separated from each other. During the Miocene, there was expansion of Sea of Japan, the northern part of the Japanese archipelago was further fragmented at later periods until the orogenesis of the northeastern Japanese archipelago began in the later Late Miocene. The southern part of the Japanese archipelago remained as a large landmass. The land area had expanded northward in the Late Miocene, the orogenesis of high mountain ranges in the northeastern Japan started in Late Miocene and it lasts in Pliocene also

13.
Shika, Ishikawa
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Shika is a town in Hakui District, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. It is one and a half hours from Kanazawa by car, national highway 249 goes through Shika. As of August 2011, the town has a population of 23,177. The total area is 246.55 km², on September 1,2005, the former town of Togi was merged into the town. There are two power stations in Shika. A natural feature of Shika is the Ganmon caves, on January 9,2015 a resident reported a wooden boat to the local police, which was washed up on the shore. Due to Hangul characters on the boat it was suspected to be from North Korea, the police arrested one man on the boat, who claimed he had left North Korea unintended in mid-December 2014 when conducting an inspection of the boat

14.
Anamizu, Ishikawa
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Anamizu is a town located in Hōsu District, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2008, the 183.24 km² town has an population of 10,193. Anamizu and its surrounding area experienced the 2007 Noto earthquake on March 25,2007, the last weekend in January is the Anamizu Oyster Festival. At this festival, guests can purchase oysters or other foods from stalls, the venue changes every year but was held at the Anamizu Harbour Asunaro in 2010. The third weekend in August is the celebration of Percival Lowells contribution to astronomy, the main shopping street is lit with hundreds of candles and visitors can enjoy live music and food stalls. In the last week in October, the Anamizu Harvest Festival is celebrated, a few small stalls line the main shopping street in the town and visitors can enjoy some speciality foods. The Anamizu Town Festival is held the first weekend in November with events all around the town. In the spring, temperatures are between 15–25 degrees most days, cherry and plum blossoms can be seen throughout the town, though March is the optimal month for plum blossoms, and April is the optimal month for cherry blossoms. In the summer, Anamizu is very humid with temperatures between 25–35 degrees, in autumn, temperatures are between 15–25 degrees most days. Leaves change colour all around the town, reaching their peak in late October, Anamizu experiences snow between December and February every year with occasional snowfalls in November and March. On average, no more than 10 cm falls, though almost every season sees two to four snowfalls of 30 cm or more, temperatures vary from 10 degrees to minus 4 during winter. Anamizus symbol is the Boramachi Yagura, a wooden fishing structure of which there is one in the Noto Bay on both the southern and northern borders of Anamizu town. There is a Giant Buddha statue in a park just south of the main town, media related to Anamizu, Ishikawa at Wikimedia Commons Official website

15.
Humid subtropical climate
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A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterised by hot, usually humid summers and mild to cool winters. It normally lies on the southeast side of all continents, generally between latitudes 25° and 40° and it tends to be located at coastal or near coastal locations. However, in cases it extends inland, most notably in China. Under the Köppen climate classification, subtropical climates are found in the warmest parts of his Warm Temperate climates or Cfa and this climate features mean temperatures in the coldest month between 0 °C and 18 °C and mean temperatures in the warmest month 22 °C or higher. However, while some climatologists have opted to describe this type as a humid subtropical climate Köppen himself never used this term. The humid subtropical climate classification was created under the Trewartha Climate classification. The Trewartha system was a 1966 update of the Köppen climate classification and this was seen to effectively separate temperate climates like London or New York City from true subtropical locations like Brisbane or Savannah for example. Rainfall often shows a peak, especially where monsoons are well developed, as in Southeast Asia. Most summer rainfall occurs during thunderstorms that build up due to the surface heating and strong subtropical sun angle. Weak tropical lows that move in from adjacent warm tropical oceans, winter rainfall is often associated with large storms in the westerlies that have fronts that reach down into subtropical latitudes. However, many subtropical climates such as southeast Asia or Florida have very dry winters, with frequent brush fires, in Africa, the humid subtropical climates are found in two separate areas on the southern hemisphere of the continent. The Cwa climate is found over a portion of the interior of the Middle. Some lower portions of the Ethiopian Highlands also have this climate, the climate is also found in the narrow coastal sections of southern and eastern South Africa, primarily in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape provinces. South Africas version of this climate features heavy oceanic influences resulting in milder temperatures. This is particularly evident in its winters when temperatures do not drop as low as in other regions within the humid subtropical category. Locations in Asia with a subtropical climate differ from those in other continents in that they often have marked seasonal differences in precipitation. Cities near the boundary of this zone include Hong Kong, Hanoi. At Hainan Island and in Taiwan, the transitions from subtropical into fully tropical

16.
Precipitation
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In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel, Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and precipitates. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated, Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers, moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain is occurring. A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain, provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. Eventually, the droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy, thundersnow is possible within a cyclones comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, on the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the trough, or intertropical convergence zone. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 cubic kilometres of it over the oceans and 107,000 cubic kilometres over land. Given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on celestial bodies, e. g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 km3 of it over the oceans, given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice

17.
Relative humidity
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Relative humidity is the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor to the equilibrium vapor pressure of water at a given temperature. Relative humidity depends on temperature and the pressure of the system of interest and it requires less water vapor to attain high relative humidity at low temperatures, more water vapour is required to attain high relative humidity in warm or hot air. Humans are sensitive to high humidity because the body uses evaporative cooling, enabled by perspiration. Perspiration evaporates from the more slowly under humid conditions than under arid. For example, if the air temperature is 24 °C and the humidity is zero percent. If the relative humidity is 100 percent at the air temperature. In other words, if the air is 24 °C and contains saturated water vapor, then the human body cools itself at the rate as it would if it were 27 °C. The heat index and the humidex are indices that reflect the effect of temperature. In cold climates, the temperature causes lower capacity for water vapour to flow about. Dry cracked skin can result from dry air, low humidity causes tissue lining nasal passages to dry, crack and become more susceptible to penetration of Rhinovirus cold viruses. Low humidity is a cause of nosebleeds. The use of a humidifier in homes, especially bedrooms, can help with these symptoms, indoor relative humidities should be kept above 30% to reduce the likelihood of the occupants nasal passages drying out. Humans can be comfortable within a range of humidities depending on the temperature—from thirty to seventy percent—but ideally between 50% and 60%. Very low humidity can create discomfort, respiratory problems, and aggravate allergies in some individuals, in the winter, it is advisable to maintain relative humidity at 30 percent or above. Extremely low relative humidities may also cause eye irritation, wooden furniture can shrink, causing the paint that covers these surfaces to fracture. When the temperature is low and the humidity is high. When relative humidity approaches 100 percent, condensation can occur on surfaces, leading to problems with mold, corrosion, decay, condensation can pose a safety risk as it can promote the growth of mold and wood rot as well as possibly freezing emergency exits shut. The basic principles for buildings, above, also apply to vehicles, in addition, there may be safety considerations

18.
Sunshine duration
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It is a general indicator of cloudiness of a location, and thus differs from insolation, which measures the total energy delivered by sunlight over a given period. Sunshine duration is usually expressed in hours per year, or in hours per day, the first measure indicates the general sunniness of a location compared with other places, while the latter allows for comparison of sunshine in various seasons in the same location. Another often-used measure is percentage ratio of recorded bright sunshine duration, an important use of sunshine duration data is to characterize the climate of sites, especially of health resorts. This also takes account the psychological effect of strong solar light on human well-being. It is often used to promote tourist destinations, if the Sun were to be above the horizon 50% of the time for a standard year consisting of 8,760 hours, apparent maximal daytime duration would be 4,380 hours for any point on Earth. However, there are physical and astronomical effects that change that picture, namely, atmospheric refraction allows the Sun to be still visible even when it physically sets below the horizon. For that reason, average daytime is longest in polar areas, places on the Arctic Circle have the longest total annual daytime,4,647 hours, while the North Pole receives 4,575. Because of elliptic nature of the Earths orbit, the Southern Hemisphere is not symmetrical, the Equator has a total daytime of 4,422 hours per year. Given the theoretical maximum of daytime duration for a given location, bright sunshine hours represent the total hours when the sunlight is stronger than a specified threshold, as opposed to just visible hours. Visible sunshine, for example, occurs around sunrise and sunset, measurement is performed by instruments called sunshine recorders. For the specific purpose of sunshine duration recording, Campbell–Stokes recorders are used, when the intensity exceeds a pre-determined threshold, the tape burns. The total length of the trace is proportional to the number of bright hours. Another type of recorder is the Jordan sunshine recorder, newer, electronic recorders have more stable sensitivity than that of the paper tape. In 2003, the duration was finally defined as the period during which direct solar irradiance exceeds a threshold value of 120 W/m². The sky is clear in these regions, and fair weather is virtually perpetual, the descending branch of the Hadley cell and the long-term lack of atmospheric disturbances helps to explain the seemingly endless supply of sunny, cloud-free days in the deserts. Low clouding conditions are associated with rainfall shortage, as seen in these dry regions. In the belt encompassing northern Chad and the Tibesti Mountains, northern Sudan, southern Libya, some places in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula receive 3, 600–3,800 hours of bright sunshine annually. The largest sun-baked region in the world is North Africa, the sunniest month in the world is December in Eastern Antarctica, with almost 23 hours of bright sun daily

19.
Noto Province
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Noto Province was an old province in the area that is today the northern part of Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, including the Noto Peninsula which is surrounded by the Sea of Japan. Noto bordered on Etchū and Kaga provinces, the ichinomiya of the province was Keta Shrine. Nanao, Ishikawa was the ancient capital and the castle town of Noto. For much of the Sengoku Period Noto was ruled by a branch of the Maeda clan of Kaga. Following the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system in 1871, Noto Province was renamed Nanao Prefecture, however, in 1872 Nanao was merged with Kanazawa Prefecture to form todays Ishikawa Prefecture and Imizu District was given back to Niikawa Prefecture. Maps of Japan and Noto Province were reformed in the 1870s when the system was introduced. At the same time, the continued to exist for some purposes. For example, Noto is explicitly recognized in treaties in 1894 between Japan and the United States and between Japan and the United Kingdom, ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC58053128 Papinot, Edmond. Historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan, OCLC77691250 Media related to Noto Province at Wikimedia Commons Murdochs map of provinces,1903

20.
Sengoku period
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The Sengoku period is a period in Japanese history marked by social upheaval, political intrigue and near-constant military conflict. Japanese historians named it after the otherwise unrelated Warring States period in China and it came to an end when all political power was unified under the Tokugawa shogunate. In the years preceding this era the Shogunate gradually lost influence, many of these Lords began to fight uncontrollably with each other for control over land and influence over the shogunate. As trade with China grew, the developed, and the use of money became widespread as markets. This, combined with developments in agriculture and small-scale trading, led to the desire for local autonomy throughout all levels of the social hierarchy. As early as the beginning of the 15th century, the caused by earthquakes and famines often served to trigger armed uprisings by farmers weary of debt. The Ōnin War, a conflict rooted in economic distress and brought on by a dispute over succession, is generally regarded as the onset of the Sengoku period. The eastern army of the Hosokawa family and its allies clashed with the army of the Yamana. Fighting in and around Kyoto lasted for nearly 11 years, leaving the city almost completely destroyed, the conflict in Kyoto then spread to outlying provinces. The period culminated with a series of three warlords, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who gradually unified Japan, after Tokugawa Ieyasus final victory at the siege of Osaka in 1615, Japan settled down into several centuries of peace under the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Ōnin War in 1467 is usually considered the point of Sengoku period. There are several events which could be considered the end of it, The Siege of Odawara, the Battle of Sekigahara, the upheaval resulted in the further weakening of central authority, and throughout Japan regional lords, called daimyōs, rose to fill the vacuum. There were many, however, whose positions eroded and were usurped by more capable underlings. One of the earliest instances of this was Hōjō Sōun, who rose from humble origins. Building on the accomplishments of Sōun, the Late Hōjō clan remained a power in the Kantō region until its subjugation by Toyotomi Hideyoshi late in the Sengoku period. Well-organized religious groups also gained power at this time by uniting farmers in resistance. The monks of the Buddhist True Pure Land sect formed numerous Ikkō-ikki and this in turn provided Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had risen through the ranks from ashigaru to become one of Odas most trusted generals, with the opportunity to establish himself as Odas successor. Toyotomi eventually consolidated his control over the remaining daimyōs and, although he was ineligible for the title of Seii Taishogun because of his common birth, during his short reign as Kampaku, Toyotomi attempted two invasions of Korea

21.
Uesugi clan
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The Uesugi clan was a Japanese samurai clan, descended from the Fujiwara clan and particularly notable for their power in the Muromachi and Sengoku periods. The clan was split into three families, the Ōgigayatsu, Inukake and Yamanouchi Uesugi, which boasted considerable influence. The Uesugi are perhaps best known for Uesugi Kenshin, originally from the Nagao clan, the family name is sometimes rendered as Uyesugi, but this is representative of historical kana usage, the ye spelling is no longer used in Japanese. In the Edo period, the Uesugi were identified as one of the tozama or outsider clans, the clan claims descent from Fujiwara no Yoshikado, who was one of the Daijō-daijin during the 9th century. Kanjūji Shigefusa was a 13th generation descendant of the clans great progenitor, near the end of the 13th century, he received Uesugi domain in Tango Province, and he adopted the name of Uesugi after arriving and establishing himself. The three main branches of the Uesugi are the Inukake, the Yamanouchi and the Ōgigayatsu, the mother of the Shōgun Ashikaga Takauji was a daughter of Uesugi Yorishige and a granddaughter of Shigefusa. The three Uesugi branch families are descendants of Uesugi Yorishige, throughout the Muromachi period, members of the clan were appointed shugo, and would also dominate the post of Kantō Kanrei. The Ōgigayatsu became based at Kawagoe Castle, in Musashi Province, while the Yamanouchi were in Hirai, the third branch, the Inukake, held a castle in the region as well. Though the Ōgigayatsu and Yamanouchi branches both survived this conflict, the Inukake did not, traditionally the Ōgigayatsu relied on the Ōta clan, while the Yamanouchi relied on the Nagao of Echigo Province as the pillars of their strength. Ōta Dōkan, a vassal of the Ōgigayatsu Uesugi, who were less numerous than their Yamanouchi cousins, lent them a great boost of power by building Edo Castle for them in the 1450s. On the other hand, Nagao Tamekage, Deputy Constable of Kamakura in the first decades of the 16th century, allied himself with Hōjō Sōun, the expansion of the Hōjō into the lower Kantō forced the two branches of the Uesugi to become allies. In 1537, Kawagoe fell to Hōjō Ujitsuna, then in 1545, both of the branches of the Uesugi shared defeat, and attempted to regain their power. However, the branch family came to an end with the death of Uesugi Tomosada. Uesugi Norimasa, the holder of Hirai castle, which had fallen in 1551 to the Hōjō, took up arms with his retainer, Nagao Kagetora in Echigo. At the end of the Sengoku period, Kenshins adopted son Uesugi Kagekatsu, as a result of being on the losing side of the conflict, the Uesugi were afterwards much reduced in power. Uesugi Kagekatsu was given the domain of Yonezawa in Dewa Province. Much research has been done on the economics of Yonezawa in the Edo period, particularly by Mark Ravina among others, Yonezawa was far from the capital, with far less direct political control from the shogunate, and also less trade and urbanization. Yonezawa was largely an agricultural domain, making it again a representation of agricultural and social developments among the peasantry in this period

22.
Kaga Domain
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The Kaga Domain, also known as Kanazawa Domain, was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It is associated with the provinces of Kaga, Noto and Etchū in modern-day Ishikawa Prefecture, in the han system, Kaga was a political and economic abstraction based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields. In other words, the domain was defined in terms of kokudaka and this was different from the feudalism of the West. Maeda Toshiie was a military commander, a retainer of Oda Nobunaga. A member of the Council of Five Elders who ruled Japan during the Sengoku period and his eldest son, Maeda Toshinaga, supported Tokugawa Ieyasu in his rise to power and was rewarded by an increase in his lands to 1.25 million koku. Except for the Tokugawa holdings, the domain was the richest in the nation and this branch held the Nanokaichi Domain, rated at the minimum of 10,000 koku. The Maeda clan ruled Kaga until the abolition of the domains in 1871, the hereditary daimyōs were heads of the clan and of the domain. Toshiie Toshinaga Toshitsune Mitsutaka Tsunanori Yoshinori Munetoki Shigehiro Shigenobu Shigemichi Harunaga Narinaga Nariyasu Yoshiyasu The clan records were preserved over the course of centuries, list of Han Abolition of the han system Brown, Philip C. Central authority and local autonomy in the formation of early modern Japan, sankin kōtai dōchūki, Kaga-han shiryō o yomu 参勤交代道中記, 加賀藩史料を読む. Flershem, Robert G. and Yoshiko N. Flershem, Kaga, a domain which changed slowly. Hamburg, Gesellschaft für Natur und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, mcClain, James L. Kanazawa, a seventeenth-century Japanese castle town

23.
Edo period
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The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the countrys 300 regional daimyō. The period was characterized by growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies. The shogunate was established in Edo on March 24,1603. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 3,1868, instrumental in the rise of the new bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Already powerful, Ieyasu profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area, after Hideyoshis death, Ieyasu moved quickly to seize control from the Toyotomi family. Ieyasus victory over the western daimyōs at the Battle of Sekigahara gave him control of all Japan. He rapidly abolished numerous enemy daimyō houses, reduced others, such as that of the Toyotomi, Ieyasu still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyōs, but his assumption of the title of shogun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his base, Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada as shogun. The Toyotomi were still a significant threat, and Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their eradication, in 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka. The Tokugawa period brought 250 years of stability to Japan, the political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan, the shogun had national authority and the daimyōs had regional authority and this represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The feudal hierarchy was completed by the classes of daimyō. Closest to the Tokugawa house were the shinpan, or related houses and they were twenty-three daimyōs on the borders of Tokugawa lands, all directly related to Ieyasu. The shinpan held mostly honorary titles and advisory posts in the bakufu, the second class of the hierarchy were the fudai, or house daimyōs, rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service. By the 18th century,145 fudai controlled such smaller han, members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed the group, the tozama, former opponents or new allies. The tozama were located mostly on the peripheries of the archipelago, because the tozama were least trusted of the daimyō, they were the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central government positions. The Tokugawa not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, they also had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyōs and the religious orders

24.
Tokugawa shogunate
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The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the Tokugawa bakufu and the Edo bakufu, was the last feudal Japanese military government, which existed between 1600 and 1868. The head of government was the shogun, and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan, the Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the Edo period. This time is called the Tokugawa period or pre-modern. Following the Sengoku period, the government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga during the Azuchi–Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu, society in the Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates before it, was supposedly based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The daimyō were at the top, followed by the warrior-caste of samurai, with the farmers, artisans, and traders ranking below. In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, daimyō and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyō might be trained as samurai, otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value, as a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much bigger rebellions. None, however, proved compelling enough to challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an end in 1868 with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The bakuhan taisei was the political system in the Edo period of Japan. Baku is an abbreviation of bakufu, meaning military government—that is, the han were the domains headed by daimyō. Vassals held inherited lands and provided service and homage to their lords. The bakuhan taisei split feudal power between the shogunate in Edo and provincial domains throughout Japan, provinces had a degree of sovereignty and were allowed an independent administration of the han in exchange for loyalty to the shogun, who was responsible for foreign relations and national security. The shogun and lords were all daimyō, feudal lords with their own bureaucracies, policies, the shogun also administered the most powerful han, the hereditary fief of the House of Tokugawa. Each level of government administered its own system of taxation, the emperor, nominally a religious leader, held no real power, this was invested in the shogun. The shogunate had the power to discard, annex, and transform domains, the sankin kōtai system of alternative residence required each daimyō to reside in alternate years between the han and the court in Edo

25.
Kitamaebune
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The kitamaebune was a shipping route in Japan from the Edo to the Meiji periods. The route went from Osaka through the Seto Inland Sea and the Kanmon Straits to ports in Hokuriku on the Sea of Japan and later to Hokkaidō. The Kaga Domain, which sold approximately 70,000 koku of rice every year in Osaka, the Tokugawa Shogunate also received rice from Dewa Province through merchant Kawamura Zuiken in 1672, but it is thought to be a response from these ships. Japanese ships at the time normally could only one trip per year. The national construction of railroads led to the end of the Kitamaebune. Currently, the Shin-Nihonkai Ferry is sometimes called the modern Kitamaebune, with stops along the old route at Maizuru, Niigata, Akita, Tomakomai, Hokkaidō, media related to Kitamaebune at Wikimedia Commons

26.
Osaka
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Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. Historically a merchant city, Osaka has also known as the nations kitchen. Some of the earliest signs of habitation in the Osaka area at the Morinomiya ruins comprise shell mounds, sea oysters. It is believed that what is today the Uehonmachi area consisted of a land with an inland sea in the east. During the Yayoi period, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular, by the Kofun period, Osaka developed into a hub port connecting the region to the western part of Japan. The large numbers of increasingly larger tomb mounds found in the plains of Osaka are seen as evidence of political-power concentration, in 645, Emperor Kōtoku built his Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace in what is now Osaka, making it the capital of Japan. The city now known as Osaka was at this time referred to as Naniwa, although the capital was moved to Asuka in 655, Naniwa remained a vital connection, by land and sea, between Yamato, Korea, and China. Naniwa was declared the capital again in 744 by order of Emperor Shōmu, and remained so until 745, in 1496, Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists established their headquarters in the heavily fortified Ishiyama Hongan-ji, located directly on the site of the old Naniwa Imperial Palace. Oda Nobunaga began a siege campaign on the temple in 1570 which ultimately resulted in the surrender of the monks. Toyotomi Hideyoshi constructed Osaka Castle in its place in 1583, Osaka was long considered Japans primary economic center, with a large percentage of the population belonging to the merchant class. Over the course of the Edo period, Osaka grew into one of Japans major cities and returned to its ancient role as a lively and its popular culture was closely related to ukiyo-e depictions of life in Edo. By 1780 Osaka had cultivated a vibrant arts culture, as typified by its famous Kabuki, in 1837 Ōshio Heihachirō, a low-ranking samurai, led a peasant insurrection in response to the citys unwillingness to support the many poor and suffering families in the area. Approximately one-quarter of the city was razed before shogunal officials put down the rebellion, Osaka was opened to foreign trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Hyōgo on 1 January 1868, just before the advent of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration. Osaka residents were stereotyped in Edo literature from at least the 18th century, jippenisha Ikku in 1802 depicted Osakans as stingy almost beyond belief. Edo writers aspired to samurai culture, and saw themselves as poor but generous, chaste, Edo writers by contrast saw zeeroku as obsequious apprentices, stingy, greedy, gluttonous, and lewd. The modern municipality was established in 1889 by government ordinance, with an area of 15 square kilometres, overlapping todays Chūō. Later, the city went through three major expansions to reach its current size of 223 square kilometres, Osaka was the industrial center most clearly defined in the development of capitalism in Japan. It became known as the Manchester of the Orient, the rapid industrialization attracted many Korean immigrants, who set up a life apart for themselves

27.
Hokkaido
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Hokkaido, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is the second largest island of Japan, and the largest and northernmost prefecture. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel. The largest city on Hokkaido is its capital, Sapporo, which is also its only ordinance-designated city, about 43 km north of Hokkaido lies Sakhalin island, Russia, whereas to its east and north-east are the disputed Kuril Islands. Hokkaido was settled by the Ainu, Nivkh, and Orok before recorded history, the Nihon Shoki, finished in 720 AD, is often said to be the first mention of Hokkaido in recorded history. According to the text, Abe no Hirafu led a navy and army to northern areas from 658 to 660 and came into contact with the Mishihase. One of the places Hirafu went to was called Watarishima, which is believed to be present-day Hokkaido. During the Nara and Heian periods, people in Hokkaido conducted trade with Dewa Province, from the Middle Ages, the people in Hokkaido began to be called Ezo. Hokkaido, formerly known as Ezochi Ezochi or Ezogashima, the Ezo mainly relied upon hunting and fishing and obtained rice and iron through trade with the Japanese. During the Muromachi period, the Japanese created a settlement at the south of the Oshima Peninsula, as more people moved to the settlement to avoid battles, disputes arose between the Japanese and the Ainu. The disputes eventually developed into a war, takeda Nobuhiro killed the Ainu leader, Koshamain, and defeated the opposition in 1457. Nobuhiros descendants became the rulers of the Matsumae-han, which was granted trading rights with the Ainu in the Azuchi-Momoyama. The Matsumae familys economy relied upon trade with the Ainu and they held authority over the south of Ezochi until the end of the Edo period in 1868. The Matsumae clan rule over the Ainu must be understood in the context of the expansion of the Japanese feudal state, medieval military leaders in northern Honshū maintained only tenuous political and cultural ties to the imperial court and its proxies, the Kamakura Shogunate and Ashikaga Shogunate. Feudal strongmen sometimes located themselves within medieval institutional order, taking shogunal titles, in fact many of the feudal strongmen were descended from Emishi military leaders who had been assimilated into Japanese society. The Matsumae clan were of Yamato descent like other ethnic Japanese people, the Emishi were conquered and integrated into the Japanese state dating back as far as the 8th century, and as result began to lose their distinctive culture and ethnicity as they became minorities. By the time the Matsumae clan ruled over the Ainu most of the Emishi were ethnically mixed, there were numerous revolts by the Ainu against feudal rule. The last large-scale resistance was Shakushains Revolt in 1669–1672, in 1789, a smaller movement, the Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion, was also crushed. After that rebellion the terms Japanese and Ainu referred to clearly distinguished groups, in 1799–1821 and 1855–1858 the Edo Shogunate took direct control over Hokkaido in response to a perceived threat from Russia

28.
Meiji Restoration
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The Meiji Restoration, also known as the Meiji Ishin, Renovation, Revolution, Reform, or Renewal, was an event of change that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were Emperors before the Meiji Restoration, the events restored practical abilities, Meiji government also made education compulsory for both boys and girls at minimal fees. The goals of the government were expressed by the new emperor in the Charter Oath. The Restoration led to changes in Japans political and social structure. In Japan however, unlike China, foreign ideas were not associated with opium addiction. Figures like Shimazu Nariakira concluded that if we take the initiative, we can dominate, if we do not, we will be dominated, leading Japan to throw open its doors to foreign technology. Observing Japans response to the powers, Li Hongzhang considered Japan Chinas principal security threat as early as 1863. The word Meiji means enlightened rule and the goal was to modern advances with traditional eastern values. The main leaders of this were Itō Hirobumi, Matsukata Masayoshi, Kido Takayoshi, Itagaki Taisuke, Yamagata Aritomo, Mori Arinori, Ōkubo Toshimichi, and Yamaguchi Naoyoshi. The foundation of the Meiji restoration was the 1866 Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance between Saigō Takamori and Kido Takayoshi, leaders of the reformist elements in the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain. These two leaders supported the Emperor Kōmei and were brought together by Sakamoto Ryōma for the purpose of challenging the ruling Tokugawa shogunate, after Emperor Kōmeis death on January 30,1867, Emperor Meiji ascended the throne on February 3. This period also saw Japan change from being a society to having a market economy. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to its end on November 9,1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu. Shortly thereafter in January 1868, the Boshin War started with the Battle of Toba–Fushimi in which Chōshū and this forced the Emperor to strip Yoshinobu of all power, setting the stage for official restoration. We shall henceforward exercise supreme authority in all the internal and external affairs of the country, consequently the title of Emperor must be substituted for that of Taikun, in which the treaties have been made. Officers are being appointed by us to the conduct of foreign affairs and it is desirable that the representatives of the treaty powers recognize this announcement. All Tokugawa lands were seized and placed under control, thus placing them under the prerogative of the new Meiji government. With Fuhanken sanchisei, the areas were split into three types, urban prefectures, rural prefectures and the already existing domains

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2007 Noto earthquake
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At 9,41,58 a. m. on March 25,2007, the Noto Peninsula earthquake, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake, struck the Hokuriku region of Japan, near the Noto Peninsula. The earthquake shook the city of Wajima, the city of Nanao, one death, in the city of Wajima, and at least 356 injuries have been reported. This earthquake was the result of oblique-slip faulting, according to the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, the fault was 21 km long,14 km wide and shifted 1.4 m. By using sound waves, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and this earthquake was an intraplate earthquake that occurred within the Eurasia Plate, near the boundary with the North American Plate. Noto Peninsula itself was created by pushing up sediment from the south-east. Some strike-slip faults are found in the area. A6.6 Mj earthquake also struck Ishikawa Prefecture on February 7,1993, since the 1990s, the number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 6. 0~ Mj are increasing. Some seismologists say that the activity in West Japan is at its peak. This earthquake is considered as one of those earthquakes. Like the 2005 Fukuoka earthquake, it was announced that it occurred in an area where seismic activity was relatively quiet, also this earthquakes fault was out in sea, so it was not simulated in the seismic danger maps, since most of the faults simulated are inland faults. Some seismologists are trying to simulate these kind of earthquakes as well as inland earthquakes and this type of earthquake was estimated to have occurred 1~2 times in the last 20,000 years. The Japan Meteorological Agency placed the earthquake at 37. 3°N,136. 5°E and it estimated the magnitude at 7.1, but later revised its estimate to 6.9. The earthquake had a maximum three-component vector sum peak ground acceleration of 1,304 cm/s2 and it occurred in a big seismic gap. Shaking in Wajima was very close to Shindo 7 and it was the first time that Shindo 6- or more was observed in Ishikawa prefecture. It was also the 2nd time that Shindo 5- or more was observed in Toyama prefecture, the earthquake moved Shika 25 cm southwest, and Anamizu 15 cm northwest. It also shifted an erosion terrace formed in the ice age and the sediment on top by 10 cm. Shaking was felt as far as Oshamanbe in the north, to Hiroshima in the west and this kind of shaking heavily damages buildings with around 2 floors. The shaking then got larger as it reached softer ground like alluvial plains, a 52-year-old woman died after a tōrō collapsed and hit her head in Wajima. 25 track ballasts on the Noto Line were shifted after the earthquake,22 cracks were found in the runway of Noto Airport

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Unicameralism
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In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multicameralism, many multicameral legislatures were created to give separate voices to different sectors of society. Multiple chambers allowed for guaranteed representation of different social classes, ethnic or regional interests, where these factors are unimportant, in unitary states with limited regional autonomy, unicameralism often prevails. Unicameral legislatures are also common in official Communist states such as the Peoples Republic of China, similarly, many formerly Communist states, such as Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia, have retained their unicameral legislatures, though others, such as Romania and Poland, adopted bicameral legislatures. Both the former Russian SFSR and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were bicameral, the two chambers were the Soviet of Nationalities and the Soviet of the Union. The Russian Federation retained bicameralism after the dissolution of the USSR, the principal advantage of a unicameral system is more efficient lawmaking, as the legislative process is much simpler and there is no possibility of deadlock. Proponents of unicameralism have also argued that it costs, even if the number of legislators stay the same, since there are fewer institutions to maintain. There is also the risk that important sectors of society may not be adequately represented, approximately half of the worlds sovereign states are currently unicameral, including both the most populous and the least populous. Many subnational entities have unicameral legislatures, and all of the Brazilian states. In the United Kingdom, the devolved Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, Congress of Deputies of Second Spanish Republic was unicameral between 1931 and 1936. Dissolved at the end of Spanish Civil War, the actual Spanish Parliament is bicameral, Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan was unicameral before being replaced in 2005 by the current, bicameral Supreme Assembly. National Assembly of Cameroon was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, chamber of Peoples Representative of Equatorial Guinea was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, bicameral Parliament of Equatorial Guinea. National Assembly of Kenya was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Kenya in 2013. National Assembly of Ivory Coast was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Ivory Coast in 2016. Nebraskas state legislature is also unique in the sense that it is the state legislature that is entirely nonpartisan. In 1999, Governor Jesse Ventura proposed converting the Minnesota Legislature into a unicameral chamber. Although debated, the idea was never adopted, if those constitutional changes had been approved, Puerto Rico could have switched to a unicameral legislature as early as 2015

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Commercial fishing
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Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the earth, large-scale commercial fishing is also known as industrial fishing. This profession has gained in popularity with the development of such as Deadliest Catch, Swords. The major fishing industries are not only owned by major corporations, the industry has had to adapt through the years in order to keep earning a profit. A study taken on some small family-owned commercial fishing companies showed that they adapted to continue to earn a living but not necessarily make a large profit. Commercial fishermen harvest a variety of animals, ranging from tuna, cod, carp, and salmon to shrimp, krill, lobster, clams, squid. There are large and important fisheries worldwide for species of fish, mollusks, crustaceans. However, a small number of species support the majority of the worlds fisheries. Some of these species are herring, cod, anchovy, tuna, flounder, mullet, squid, shrimp, salmon, crab, lobster, oyster and scallops. All except these last four provided a catch of well over a million tonnes in 1999, with herring. Many other species are fished in smaller numbers, commercial fishing may offer an abundance of jobs, but the pay varies from boat to boat, season to season. That may be true, but there are also the boats who dont do well, a 2009 paper in Science estimates, for the first time, the total world fish biomass as somewhere between 0.8 and 2.0 billion tonnes. Sustainability of fisheries is improved by using equipment that eliminates or minimizes catching non-targeted species. Fishing methods vary according to the region, the species being fished for, a commercial fishing enterprise may vary from one man with a small boat with hand-casting nets or a few pot traps, to a huge fleet of trawlers processing tons of fish every day. Billions of dollars are spent each year in researching/developing new techniques to reduce the injury, in fact, there was a study taken in 2000 on different deterrents and how effective they are at deterring the target species. The study showed that most auditory deterrents helped prevent whales from being caught while more physical barriers helped prevent birds from getting tangled within the net. During 2000–2006, commercial fishing was one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States, falling overboard specifically killed 182 fishermen in the period between 2000 and 2010. This fatality rate is 3 times that of the next most dangerous job in the U. S. also, between the years of 1919 and 2005,4111 fishermen died in fishing related accidents in the United Kingdom industry alone

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Lacquer
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The term lacquer is used for a number of hard and potentially shiny finishes applied to materials such as wood. These fall into a number of different groups. This dries to a hard and smooth surface layer which is durable, waterproof. Asian lacquer is sometimes painted with pictures, inlaid with shell and other materials, or carved, as well as dusted with gold and given other further decorative treatments. In modern techniques, lacquer means a range of clear or coloured wood finishes that dry by solvent evaporation or a process that produces a hard. The finish can be of any level from ultra matte to high gloss. It is also used for paint, which is a paint that typically dries better on a hard. Lacquer is more durable than shellac and these ultimately derive from Sanskrit lākshā, which was used for both the Lac insect and the scarlet resinous secretion it produces that was used as wood finish. Lac resin was once imported in quantity into Europe from India along with Eastern woods. Lacquer sheen is a measurement of the shine for a given lacquer, different manufacturers have their own names and standards for their sheen. The most common names from least shiny to most shiny are, flat, matte, egg shell, satin, semi-gloss, urushiol-based lacquers differ from most others, being slow-drying, and set by oxidation and polymerization, rather than by evaporation alone. In order for it to set properly it requires a humid, the phenols oxidize and polymerize under the action of an enzyme laccase, yielding a substrate that, upon proper evaporation of its water content, is hard. These lacquers produce very hard, durable finishes that are beautiful and very resistant to damage by water, acid, alkali or abrasion. The active ingredient of the resin is urushiol, a mixture of various phenols suspended in water, the resin is derived from a tree indigenous to China, species Toxicodendron vernicifluum, commonly known as the Lacquer Tree. The fresh resin from the T. vernicifluum trees causes urushiol-induced contact dermatitis, the Chinese treated the allergic reaction with crushed shellfish, which supposedly prevents lacquer from drying properly. Lacquer skills became very highly developed in Asia, and many highly decorated pieces were produced, the earliest extant lacquer object, a red wooden bowl, was unearthed at a Hemudu culture site in China. By the Han Dynasty, many centres of production became firmly established. The knowledge of the Chinese methods of the process spread from China during the Han, Tang and Song dynasties, eventually it was introduced to Korea, Japan, Southeast

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Noto Airport
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Noto Airport, also unofficially known as Wajima Airport is a domestic airport located 6.4 NM south southeast of the city of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The airport is a building with two jetways. It is officially designated a third class airport, completed on July 7,2003, Noto Airport is among Japans newest greenfield airports not constructed to replace an existing facility. Initially, All Nippon Airways was only willing to operate one flight per day, however, the agreement also specified that if the target is exceeded, ANA must pay the excess back to Ishikawa Prefecture. So far, the agreement seems to have been mutually beneficial, Noto Airport

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Taiko
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Taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. The process of constructing taiko varies between manufacturers, and preparation of both the body and skin can take several years depending on methodology. Taiko have a origin in Japanese folklore, but historical records suggest that taiko were introduced to Japan through Korean. Some taiko are similar to instruments originating from India, archaeological evidence also supports that taiko were present in Japan during the 6th century in the Kofun period. Their function has varied through history, ranging from communication, military action, theatrical accompaniment, in modern times, taiko have also played a central role in social movements for minorities both within and outside Japan. Kumi-daiko performance, characterized by an ensemble playing on different drums, was developed in 1951 through the work of Daihachi Oguchi and has continued with such as Kodo. Other performance styles, such as hachijō-daiko, have emerged from specific communities in Japan. Kumi-daiko performance groups are not only in Japan, but also in the United States, Australia, Canada. Taiko performance consists of components in technical rhythm, form, stick grip, clothing. Ensembles typically use different types of barrel-shaped nagadō-daiko as well as smaller shime-daiko, many groups accompany the drums with vocals, strings, and woodwind instruments. The origin of the instruments is unclear, though there have been many suggestions, historical accounts, of which the earliest date from 588 CE, note that young Japanese men traveled to Korea to study the kakko, a drum that originated in South China. This study and appropriation of Chinese instruments may have influenced the emergence of taiko, certain court music styles, especially gigaku and gagaku, arrived in Japan through both Korea and China. In both traditions, dancers were accompanied by instruments that included drums similar to taiko. This evidence was substantiated by the discovery of statues in the Sawa District of Gunma Prefecture. Two of these figures are depicted playing drums, one of them, wearing skins, is equipped with a barrel-shaped drum hung from his shoulder and this statue is titled Man Beating the Taiko and is considered the oldest evidence of taiko performance in Japan. Similarities between the playing style demonstrated by this haniwa and known music traditions in Korea and China further suggest influences from these regions, the Nihon Shoki, the second oldest book of Japanese classical history, contains a mythological story describing the origin of taiko. The myth tells how Amaterasu, who had sealed herself inside a cave in anger, was beckoned out by an elder goddess Ame-no-Uzume when others had failed, Ame-no-Uzume accomplished this by emptying out a barrel of sake and dancing furiously on top of it. Historians regard her performance as the creation of taiko music

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Kami
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Kami are the spirits or phenomena that are worshiped in the religion of Shinto. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, as well as beings and the qualities that these beings express, and include the spirits of venerated dead persons. Many kami are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans, traditionally, great or sensational leaders like the Emperor could be kami. In Shinto, kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, good and they are manifestations of musubi, the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. Kami are believed to be “hidden” from this world, and inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own, to be in harmony with the awe-inspiring aspects of nature is to be conscious of kannagara no michi. Though the word kami is translated in multiple ways into English, in this way, the ambiguity of the meaning of kami is necessary, as it conveys the ambiguous nature of kami themselves. Kami is the Japanese word for a god, deity, divinity and it has been used to describe mind, God, supreme being, one of the Shinto deities, an effigy, a principle, and anything that is worshipped. Although deity is the interpretation of kami, some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term. The wide variety of usage of the word can be compared to the Sanskrit Deva and the Hebrew Elohim, some etymological suggestions are, Kami may, at its root, simply mean spirit, or an aspect of spirituality. It is written with the kanji 神, Sino-Japanese reading shin or jin, in Chinese, the character means deity. In the Ainu language, the word refers to an animistic concept very similar to Japanese kami. In his Kojiki-den, Motoori Norinaga gave a definition of kami. any being whatsoever which possesses some eminent quality out of the ordinary, because Japanese does not normally distinguish grammatical number in nouns, it is sometimes unclear whether kami refers to a single or multiple entities. When a singular concept is needed, -kami or -kamisama is used as a suffix. The logograms for kami-sama are those used for shén yàng in Pŭtōnghuà, kami-sama can be used for a divinity, or for a human, such as Tezuka Osamu. The term generally used to refer to multiple kami is kamigami, gender is also not implied in the word kami, and as such it can be used to reference either male or female. The word megami, the use of female kami is a new tradition. The Kojiki also includes descriptions of various kami, in the ancient Shinto traditions there were 5 defining characteristics of kami. They can nurture and love when respected, or they can cause destruction, Kami must be appeased in order to gain their favor and avoid their wrath